After installing Windows 10 on my HP Pavilion g6-2197sa laptop, I have had problems charging the battery. The battery icon reports something like "79% available (plugged in, not charging)."

I can, sometimes, temporarily fix this problem by following these steps:

Shut down

Remove battery

Boot up on AC power

Uninstall the ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery driver

Shut down

Reinsert battery

Reboot

However, I bought a new battery to see whether the issue lay with my original battery, and it worked fine for a while before it also succumbed to the issue. Now the new battery no longer charges even after repeating the above process. My original battery seems to charge temporarily after I repeat the above process.

I have further noticed that my AC light flashes continuously while plugged in, whether the laptop is on or off, which it never used to do.

Also, note that the battery never charges, now matter how low the available remaining power gets - my problem doesn't appear (to me) to be a feature designed to prolong battery life.

I would really like to fix this problem permanently but am completely stumped. Cheers!

Does it charge properly if not in Windows, or turned off? Are you running the latest BIOS for your PC?
– CharlieRBFeb 4 '16 at 16:53

@CharlieRB I have nowhere else to test the battery, but given that the batteries did charge when the software issue was fixed temporarily, I assume this is not a hardware fault with the batteries. The batteries do not charge when the laptop is off and connected to AC power. I am running the latest BIOS (I updated it to see whether this would fix the issue to no avail).
– NinjakannonFeb 4 '16 at 17:19

The fact the battery does not charge when the laptop is off, which it should, is an indicator of a problem. This could be due to the, batteries, AC adapter or the internal charging circuit of the laptop (my guess is one of the later two). You may want to run hardware diagnostics on the unit to verify you aren't dealing with something other than a Windows/drivers issue.
– CharlieRBFeb 4 '16 at 18:02

Since it does not charge when the PC is off it is not a windows problem.
– MoabFeb 4 '16 at 23:15

1

Don't forget the generic battery trick: after removing your battery, hold down the power button for 60 seconds, turn on and shutdown, and replace your battery. This can even fix problems like your laptop screen not working, and as your issue is battery related, this may have something to do with that. I have seen your problem before, and usually it is because the laptop is using more energy than it is getting - if you charge the battery when the laptop is turned off, is at 100% when you turn it back on again?
– InterLinkedApr 12 '16 at 1:09

7 Answers
7

This may be not a problem but it should be a feature of your energy manager or power manager driver. I am using Lenovo laptop and in this the new power manager driver have the feature that you can put a battery into conservation mode that protect battery to charge above 60% (in lenovo limit is 60%) after that it shows plugged in but not charging. This is feature is useful when you want to continuously use laptop without worrying about charging of battery. And I also observed that this feature still remain even if you change OS, shutdown and than charge it. The only way to turn off the conservation mode is to off from the same software again. So check your laptops power manager driver may be you can find this type of feature with the name conservation mode or any other name and turn it off.

Edit:

In my Lenovo Laptop I've Found the way to turn off the feature which I've mentioned above. The trick is very simple. I shut down the computer and remove the battery and long press the power button without any power source (around 40 second).

Thank you for your answer. I have looked for power management settings in Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options (and submenus) and Win 10 Settings > System > Battery saver and Power & sleep but cannot find anything that seems relevant.
– NinjakannonFeb 4 '16 at 17:31

Click the plus (+) sign next to Batteries category, right-click all of the "Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery" listings, and select Uninstall In the "Confirm Device Uninstall" dialog box, click OK. (it’s ok if you only have 1 of these).

Click the plus (+) sign next to System Devices.
Right-click the “ACPI Fixed Features Button" and select Uninstall. In the "Confirm Device Uninstall" dialog box, click OK.

Thanks for your answer. As stated in my question, I have already tried this and, minus uninstalling "ACPI Fixed Features Button". However, I do not have any such or similar drivers under System Devices, so cannot make this extra step.
– NinjakannonFeb 4 '16 at 22:26

All I can suggest is to power down, remove battery and AC, remove the cmos battery for 15 minutes, reinsert the cmos battery and immediately enter the bios and set date and time, see if this makes a difference in charging.
– MoabFeb 4 '16 at 23:17

Somehow I did have a "ACPI Fixed Feature Button" driver; removing this had no impact on charging, though it didn't reinstall (as I expected and as the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" driver does. There are a bunch of other ACPI drivers... Would uninstalling these be a reasonable idea?
– NinjakannonFeb 5 '16 at 12:20

I have noticed that the AC power light has stopped flashing after doing this. That's something, I guess.
– NinjakannonFeb 5 '16 at 13:30

I had this problem with my refurbished Dell Latitude E6400. I tried everything suggested on sites like this one. Nothing worked. I tried swapping the supplied transformer (output 19.5v; 4.62A) for an old one I have (output 19.5v; 3.34A). Hey presto! Not only did the battery start charging but things that had slowed down were suddenly good as new.

@JimHIbbert: When you're not busy leading a horse, please consider editing your answer to make it more explicit--exactly what are you recommending that the OP do to solve the problem? Try any different transformer? Try one of a smaller size? Try an older one? Borrow the one you used successfully? The one you used had different specs; what specs can be different and by how much? What were the things that didn't work? Are you recommending using a lower-capacity transformer to speed up the laptop? Does "presto" imply that magic is required? :-)
– fixer1234Apr 17 '16 at 17:52

I apologise for being abrupt. My contribution was simply an account of my experience which led to my problem of battery not charging being solved. I am not an expert, just a computer user. I would not apply a voltage or an amperage greater than the supply that came with the computer. However, I'm pretty confident applying a lower amperage can do no harm. The worst that can happen is that the computer will not work. I wouldn't change the voltage. Saying a few magic words and crossing your fingers can't do any harm either. Good luck and good wishes. Jim.
– Jim HIbbertApr 17 '16 at 21:28

For HP laptop there is a new power management tool/driver which actually (if turn on) try to use AC power after a certain % of battery draining. In my case even if I have the power on my battery drain constantly upto 15% and then stays there. Its annoying if you are not aware about it and if you are planning to use your laptop on battery for longer time turn off this feature first.

What worked for me was uninstalling the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery under the Batteries field in Device Manager, and then removing/adding the battery to the laptop.

Once you've done so, right click 'Batteries' and then 'Scan for hardware changes'. One it has readded the drivers, the battery icon should pop up again on your taskbar and report that it is now charging.

Thank you for your answer. Are you saying that you specifically found that if you reinserted the battery after connecting the AC, this did not work? I have already tried both on my laptop and neither have any effect.
– NinjakannonJan 22 '17 at 14:41

Yes. I worked on this a good couple hours, following procedures on this site and others. It was connecting the battery, power on pc, waiting to it was up and running, then connecting AC that finally worked for me. Note: make sure you hold down that power switch for 60 seconds while AC and battery not connected. This problem is very frustrating, I am not surprised problems persist. Luckily my HP Pavilion continues to charge.
– RogerJan 22 '17 at 16:53

Roger, you can freely edit your own posts but for your protection, it must be done under the original user account. There is an anonymous proposed edit. It could be you trying to update your answer without logging in, or someone else contributing potentially irrelevant information trying to be helpful. I'll vote to approve the edit because it looks like clarification, but please review to confirm.
– fixer1234Mar 19 '18 at 23:10

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